The pineapple is a very popular and widely consumed fruit in many parts of Africa. It is second only to bananas as the most important harvested fruit.

Despite the perfect fit that Africa’s tropical climate and soils have for pineapples, very few countries on the continent are big producers of the fruit. Ghana and Ivory Coast are the largest Africa’s exporters making more than $50 million every year from the pineapples sold in Europe. In some of the other big producers like Nigeria, more than 95 percent of harvested pineapples are eaten locally and very little is exported. Using fertilizers has an impact on the crop yields and consumer qualities.